A-murder-ca!

With all due respect to my girl Gladys Knight, I think I am going to stay off that "Midnight Train To Georgia. I'm sorry, Georgia just isn't a place I want to be right now. You all have a serious killer on the loose and until you have him in custody I think will pass on those peaches.

Thing is, this is the kind of tragedy I would expect to happen in Atlanta, but not in a rural trailer park for crying out loud. The poor people of Brunswick must be on some serious edge right now. I guess that's how the people in a lot of inner cities feel 24/7 with the urban terrorist running loose.

"Mary Strickland, who owns The Georgia Pig, a popular local barbecue place said people have been buzzing about the killings and mainly want to know what happened.
"I think a lot of people who live in that area would feel a lot better if they had a little more information," Strickland said. "If it is a murder-suicide then let people know so they don't think there's some lunatic out there. We got a lot of people who panic and the more information you put out there, the better you make them feel."

I agree Mary.

"Lisa Vizcaino, who has lived at New Hope for three years, said the management works hard to keep troublemakers out of the mobile home park and that it tends to be quiet.
"New Hope isn't run down or trashy at all," Vizcaino said Saturday. "It's the kind of place where you can actually leave your keys in the car and not worry about anything."'

I don't agree, Lisa. "New Hope isn't run down or trashy at all"? Ahhm, is that a picture of New Hope? Because if it is, you might have to define "trashy" for me.

But let me stop, your community has been through enough. As someone who lives in a community where we have had our share of mass killings I know it can't be easy. And I should and do feel your pain. That's the thing, here in A-murder-ca, we are all just one community. Whether you live in a trailer park on an old plantation, or in a concrete jungle on the east coast.

Finally, speaking of communities with mass killings; seems there was a double slaying up at Virginia Tech last week and that killer is still on the loose. What the hell is going on in A-murder-ca? Has it always been this bad with the killings and mayhem? Or is this a new phenomenon like "Wii games"? I feel for the people of Virginia Tech, too. They have had some issues recently with mass killings. And, not to mention, someone was recently beheaded on campus. (Yes, beheaded!) By all accounts, these latest victims were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“They were both godly young people, the cream of the crop..."

Hell, maybe we all are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

If a child dies in the desert.....

Over a year ago, a colleague of mine who happens to be a very successful personal injury lawyer, was telling me about one of his more successful trials. Homeboy was explaining to me what a great case he had because the victim in this particular case had a very bright future and was from a very solid middle class family. In the personal injury world, that meant dollars, because the award for damages are often based on the future earnings of the victim in a particular case. (Think of the recent settlement for those NASA astronauts who perished on the Columbia space shuttle)

Fast forward to April 18, 2007. And I am thinking about those horrific killings up at Va Tech,and the poor families of those students. For some reason I started thinking about that discussion with my colleague. All those bright futures, all that potential, and all those dollars. I shudder to think what will happen if the first family that sues the University (and someone will sue) gets a favorable judgement. Virginians, your taxes could be going up soon. But this post isn't even about that. It's about the value we as Americans place on peoples lives based on who they are, or where they live. Looking back at it now, I still can't believe how matter of fact my colleague was when talking about that case. It was as if he was talking about a bunch of spread sheets, or profits and losses, and not someones lost loved one.

But isn't that par for the course with most Americans, and not just heartless lawyers? Unless of course,we are talking about upper middle class college kids in Blacksburg Virginia, or upper middle class high school students in Columbine, Colorado. A life is as valuable as a mere glance at the nightly news, or a passing eye on the front page while we make a dash to the sports section to read the latest scores. Let's think about it for a minute; 183 dead Iraqis today and counting, did we even give it a second thought? Of course we didn't. After all, they are just a bunch of Iraqis. They are not white, they are not well to do, and they are not smart kids in one of our finer schools. But does that make their lives any less precious, or their deaths any less news worthy? We certainly act like it does. We have become almost numb to the daily killings in Iraq, and the young black males in America's inner cities who seem to murder each other for sport. Only when something like this happens do we wake up and say; "what the f**k is happening in our country"?

How many will die in Darfur before I finish this post? "If a child dies in the desert and no one gives a damn will anyone make a sound?" I doubt it, because it's just some African child in the desert. But this isn't just another rant from the field who thinks he has all the answers, because I don't. And honestly, I am more curious than anything else; I am really not preaching here, I am just wondering, because I really don't know what to make of all this s**t.

So the beat goes on, we will be inundated for the next few days with more news about this sicko. (he even sent NBC News a f*****g press kit for crying out loud) and like everyone else, I will be watching, because I live in America, just like you do.

Before I go, I would like to say that I am so proud of a project that I am fortunate to be a part of. Five brothers and sisters, who to me, are some of the brightest and most insightful people blogging out here. They have started the AfroSpear, which is something that I and many other progressive black bloggers have been screaming to see for awhile now. Well now it's here, and the beauty of it is that everyone will be a part of it. Whether it's with links to your individual blogs, or comment posts, and even your own essays. It will be your page too, and your chance to truly become interactive with other like minded people out here.

We will be sharing ideas, thoughts, and different ways we think we can improve our race and ultimately, our country. And We will be wanting your input, as well as an honest no holds barred debate on the issues and subjects that we confront on a daily basis. Issues that are so important, that we just can't afford to ignore them anymore.

So head over there, check it out, and start writing!

"There was blood everywhere"

Those tragic words came from the lips of a Virginia Tech student, after a campus massacre in the rolling mountains of Western Virginia took the lives of thirty two of his fellow students. Hey, all I know about Virginia Tech is that Michael Vick played some serious football there, and it's in a beautiful part of the country. But today I also learned this: That Virginia Tech was the scene of the largest single day killing spree in American History. In one day, some animal managed to do- what is for us here in Philly, a months worth of killings.

This was horrible, and it seems like every time we think that these unspeakable acts can't get any worse, they do. From the former Marine who took out sixteen people from a tower on the University of Texas. To the depraved animal who bound and executed five little Amish girls in Lancaster Pennsylvania, because of his sick delusions. Somehow it just seems that these types of tragedies keep happening over and over again, and unfortunately, we can't figure out what is in the American psyche that causes it.

And before I write one more word, let me say this right now: I feel for those victims and their loved ones, and I would never minimize what they are experiencing, or what they had to go through today.

Now here comes my rant: We as Americans like to think that we are above harboring pure evil in our hearts. We like to think of ourselves as morally superior to other people in the world, because, this is, after all, America. It's hard for us to fathom one of our own committing these horrific acts against a fellow American. Yet time and time again, it happens, and these acts are not only committed by adults, but by children as well.

So what is it that's driving those of us in our society to commit these acts, and why does it keep- happening? Isn't it funny how conservatives spend all their time trying to scare us into being afraid of the Muslim bogeymen and terrorist who would bring harm to us, yet our own children have shown that they are capable of acts that are just as heinous and despicable? Maybe we should focus more of our war on terror right here at home.

I know that in the neighborhoods of our inner cities people live with terrorist every day. Try telling a retired grandmother who just cashed her social security check, that the ignorant ass young buck waiting to jack her isn't more dangerous than Osama bin Laden. I see where the President and members of congress came out and spoke about this tragedy today, and they tried to offer comfort and words of encouragement to an uneasy nation. "Schools should be places of sanctuary and safety and learning." Yeah I hear you Mr. President, but it sure would be nice to hear you make a statement to all the poor people in inner cities all over our country. People who have to listen to gun shots night after night, and who see the blood of their children in the streets when they wake in the morning. It's nice that you have offered federal aid to the people of Virginia to help them cope with this tragedy, but what the f**k? There have been over one hundred and twelve murders in my hometown alone this year, and I guarantee you there ain't no federal aid on the way. Again, I feel for those who lost loves ones today, but you know what, I feel for all the people who have lost loved ones here in my city so far this year as well.

Now you will hear all the NRA apologist say; (they come out of their holes every time there is a mass killing now) "Guns don't kill people, people kill people". Yes that may be right, but I guarantee you that it wouldn't be so easy for "people to kill people" if they didn't have such easy access to guns. Or how about this one: "Well if one of those students were packing heat they would have been able to stop the gunman before he could have killed more people." Yeah right, like a mother f****r wants to be packing his Glock along with his organic chemistry book in his book bag every fu****g day.

But hey, such is life in this John Wayne culture of ours in America. We have to be free to keep purchasing our guns and killing each other at will. You never know when an unjust government might want to infringe on our Second Amendment rights. Or God forbid, a liberal might get out of line.